out enthusiasm, Hyzlo. I tell you that AEschylus,
Sophocles, or Euripides never conceived a story more infinitely dramatic
or pathetic, or--thanks to my Hebraic blood--so suffused with tragic
irony. I shall make a very effective tableau at the death; on some
forbidding stony hill near Jerusalem I shall plant my crucified hero,
and near him a converted courtesan--ah! what a master of the theatre I
am!--in company with a handful of faithful disciples. The others have
run away to save their cowardly skins in the tumult. The mobs that
hailed him as King of the Jews now taunt him, after the manner of all
mobs. His early life I shall borrow outright from the Buddha legends. He
shall be born of a virgin; he shall live in the desert; as a child he
shall confute learned doctors in the temple; and later in the desert he
shall be tempted by a demon. All this is at hand. My chief point is the
philosophies in which I shall submerge my characters.

"My hero shall be the _logos_ of Heraclitus with the superadded
authority of the Hebrew high priest. You may recall the fact that I
greatly admire the Essenes and their system. My deity is a pure essence;
not Jehovah the protector or avenger. The _logos_, or mediator, I have
borrowed from the writings of the Greek philosophers. This _logos_
returns to the bosom of God after the sacrifice. Greek philosophy
combined with Hebraic moral principles! Ah! it is grand synthesis;
Seneca with his conception of a perfected humanity, Lucretius,
Manlius--who called, rightfully too, Epicurus a god--and Heraclitus with
the first idea of a _logos_: all these ancient ideas I have worked into
my romantic play, including the old cult of the Trinities; the
Buddhistic: Buddha, Dharma, and Saingha; the Chinese: Heaven, Earth,
and Emperor; the Babylonian: Ea, the father, Marduk, the son, and the
Fire God, Gibil, who is also the Paraclete. So my philosophy is merely a
continuation and modification of that taught by Heraclitus and Plato,
but with a Jewish background--for _mine_ is the only moral nation. The
wisdom of the Rabbis, their Monotheism and ethics, are all there." His
eyes were ablaze.

"You are very erudite, Philo Judaeus!" exclaimed his listener; "but, tell
me, is there no actual foundation for your Jewish god?" Hyzlo eagerly
awaited a reply, though he could not account for this curiosity.

"Yes," answered Philo, lightly, "there is, I freely acknowledge, a
slight foundation. Some years ago in Jerusale